Baptism on the field
"When my friends heard we wanted to start a football school, they all said it would never happen," says Michael Chandler, another of Master's British coaches. "They said it would be like growing flowers in the desert."
But in 2003, they began offering one class a week on the athletic field of Neihu's Sanmin Junior High School. Now that Master has reached its target of 500 students (up from its initial group of 40) and has opened a branch academy in Tanshui, it looks as if a small green shoot may indeed be poking up through the desert sands. "Our Tainan and Taichung academies will be recruiting students by the end of the year," says Calvert. "At that point, we'll no longer need to teach English on the side; we'll be able to devote ourselves to football fulltime."
Though they began the venture as a part-time endeavor, they took their preparations very seriously. Before opening their first academy, Calvert contacted a number of professional soccer teams, including Britain's Leicester City FC, to observe their training programs for children and to establish channels for communication.
"I learned a lot of little things, including things about the lanes on the field and communicating with children," says Calvert. He then went on to earn an FA Level 1 Club Coach certificate from England's Football Association.
The frequent collisions that occur in soccer result in a high rate of injuries for players. For this reason, Calvert and the other coaches at Master also earned licenses to treat sports-related injuries in children. This ensures that if any children get hurt in the heat of competition, the coaches can provide immediate first aid.
"We also make use of an age-grouping system long in use in England," explains Chandler. "U7 is for children seven years of age and under. U9 is for children nine and under.... Each age group has its own educational focus. With children at U11, for example, the training becomes more spirited and competitive."
"In addition to footwork, the U7s focus on the lanes we just talked about," says Camhi. He explains that when young children first begin to play, they all run for the ball wherever it is. They have no sense of space. "How you go about instilling in children a concept of space on the soccer pitch has a huge influence on how well they later play."
This year, Master was responsible for another first--Taiwan's first-ever FA training course for coaches. The Kent Football Association provided coordination for the January workshop, and brought in two coaches from England's West Ham United FC to run the FA Level 1 Certificate in Coaching Football course, which attracted 45 participants from Taiwan and abroad.
Ghana native Mohammed Ibrahim Donkor is far more experienced a soccer player than most in Taiwan, The children under his tutelage are showing clear improvements in basic ball control skills.